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Local Paper Records Shots Fired at Sheehan Camp in Texas

Editor and Publisher
By E&P Staff

Published: August 14, 2005 12:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Showing the value of its nearly round-the-clock coverage, the Lone Star Iconoclast, a weekly in Crawford, Texas, reported this morning from the scene that shots had been fired near the Cindy Sheehan antiwar encampment near the Bush ranch, which has drawn national attention.

Apparently they were fired by a local landowner none too pleased with the protest in his neighborhood.

Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle talked to the neghbor, Larry Mattlage. Sitting on a tractor across the road, Mattlage said he supported the right to protest but that the demonstrators should not be allowed to stay for prolonged periods. "In the morning I usually wake up and see the morning sun," he said. "Now I wake up to stuff hanging in trees."

Here is today's Iconoclast report, as phoned in by its staffer, Deborah Mathews, on the scene:

Wait! Someone is firing a gun. (pause). He fired it into the air about five times. He appears to be a local inside the fence line on private property. Now he has thrown what looks like a shotgun into the front seat of a pickup, and he's stomping off out of sight. I wonder where he went.

Now he's coming back out. I'm out here standing on the road. He's got a no parking sign in his hand, walking toward his fence. I'm going to go try to talk to him. I've got to hang up.

(three minutes later)

I went over and talked to the man. He is Larry Mattlage, who says he is on his property and just posted a no-parking sign.

"We're going to start doing our war and it's going to be underneath the law," he told me. "Whatever it takes. So y'all go find another place to do whatever you do. 'Cause this is our front yard and back yard."

Wait.....now there's some Secret Service and cops. I'm going to get closer to hear what they're saying. People in bullet-proof vests are here now. Two Secret Service agents are now walking up his driveway towards his house, with Mr. Mattlage. A member of the Sheriff's Department has arrived. Mr. Mattlage is waving his arms now. All of them are now walking back this way.

Now they are between the lane and the house. He's at the fence now. Let me record what they are saying. I'll call right back.

***

Interviewed afterward, protest leader Cindy Sheehan said it was okay if the man fired his gun on his own property, so long as the bullets remained on his property as well.

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I just sent $5.00 (which is all I can afford) to the Crawford Peace House and earmarked it for Mr. Mattlage to compensate him for any damage done by cars parking on the right of way that he cares for and keeps mowed. I know that the Camp Casey people are policing up the trash very carefully, but with all the rain, parked cars can leave ugly ruts in the road. I also included a message for Mr. Mattlage about how important I feel Cindy's vigil is to the future of our country and asking for his understanding and tolerance.

Mr. Mattlage, will you send me that five spot when you receive it? The ATVs and snowmobiles up here in Minnesota have totally destroyed the grass and the drainage and the road apron in the public right-of-way adjoining my property. They even sicked a sheriff deputy on me when I tried to repair the damage in order to keep the culvert open and the road from caving in. I sure could use that $5. Thanks. Oh, and I hope you didn't get arrested. They said they were going to arrest me if I cleared the culvert again.

Personally, I can understand the frustration this guy feels. I think with a little understanding and attention directed his way, he might become an ally. If not, well, at least we've tried. It doesn't hurt to accommodate his opinions and his rights. It doesn't sound as if he's suffering any, but if he is, then maybe a conciliatory gesture wouldn't hurt.

Sounds to me like that far-righty landowner does not like protests that disagree with his position--He may want to consider Church on Sunday mornings. Jesus did not carry weapons. (((Or, the shooter might just sign up his sons to fight the war the Right loves...)))Jesus would not condone lying about WMD to trick Congress and the American people into an illegal war. The Downing Street Memos prove the President and his administration lied to its allies and citizens. Congress needs to investigate NOW. I wrote both of my Senators today.

When the Republican party paid you to hit the sites with comments like that I don't think they meant being that crass. Casey, incidentally would probably be very proud of his mother. She is trying to protect his buddies by getting home safe and sound. He would find you a waste of time.

Cindy - I know how you feel. I recently lost a litter of kittens to a big dog. Bush is a dog lover, so like you I blame him for killing my precious little kitten children. We want peace with the dogs, but Bush keeps letting dogs run around and kill my little kittens. So I am with you 100%. Why did we have to start this way anyway? So what if the Arabs come over here and kill some of us once in a while. Its OK with me because they only got New Yorkers. If we would just let them come over once in a while and kill some of us, then your son would be alive . . . well, unless he was one that got killed. Anyway, I am with you.

And when you see Bush, you tell him that my next batch of kittens is going to blow up his dog's house!

Hines; your cynical comments merely show you have done little or no homework or you are a heckler part of the coverup.
Farenheit 9/11 (on showtime if you cant buy or rent) is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the Bush regime and lead-up to invading Iraq.
Bush now using the exact same rhetoric regarding Iran.
AND you are here at the Downingstreet site, so I question whether you are ignorant of facts or part of the hecklers tactics used to try to distract and coverup the massive crimes perpetrated by the Busheviks.
For anyone really wanting to know, the 9/11 Investigation was NEVER done by government authorities; because they werent planning on implicating themselves. Search if you havent already all the REAL EVIDENCE not covered by the MSM. BushCo needs to be tried for Crimes against humanity, murder and treason!!!!!!!!!!
Great title for a new book or documentary: Who Is/Whatever Happened to Marvin Bush and where was little brother before the attacks of 9/11?

Hines; your cynical comments merely show you have done little or no homework or you are a heckler part of the coverup.
Farenheit 9/11 (on showtime if you cant buy or rent) is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the Bush regime and lead-up to invading Iraq.
Bush now using the exact same rhetoric regarding Iran.
AND you are here at the Downingstreet site, so I question whether you are ignorant of facts or part of the hecklers tactics used to try to distract and coverup the massive crimes perpetrated by the Busheviks.
For anyone really wanting to know, the 9/11 Investigation was NEVER done by government authorities; because they werent planning on implicating themselves. Search if you havent already all the REAL EVIDENCE not covered by the MSM. BushCo needs to be tried for Crimes against humanity, murder and treason!!!!!!!!!!
Great title for a new book or documentary: Who Is/Whatever Happened to Marvin Bush and where was little brother before the attacks of 9/11?

Aug. 22, 2005 issue - The grieving room was arranged like a doctor's office. The families and loved ones of 33 soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan were summoned to a large waiting area at Fort Bragg, N.C. For three hours, they were rotated through five private rooms, where they met with President George W. Bush, accompanied by two Secret Service men and a photographer. Because the walls were thin, the families awaiting their turn could hear the crying inside.

President Bush was wearing "a huge smile," but his eyes were red and he looked drained by the time he got to the last widow, Crystal Owen, a third-grade schoolteacher who had lost her husband in Iraq. "Tell me about Mike," he said immediately. "I don't want my husband's death to be in vain," she told him. The president apologized repeatedly for her husband's death. When Owen began to cry, Bush grabbed her hands. "Don't worry, don't worry," he said, though his choking voice suggested that he had worries of his own. The president and the widow hugged. "It felt like he could have been my dad," Owen recalled to NEWSWEEK. "It was like we were old friends. It almost makes me sad. In a way, I wish he weren't the president, just so I could talk to him all the time."

Your desperation has led you to call the mother of a fallen soldier a "publicity-seeking liar".Brilliant! Let me tell you something, she speaks for a MAJORITY of Americans. Americans are realizing that they have had enough of the professional liars occupying the White House. You are now a dillusional member of the minority who are either too proud or too stupid to admit that they have been duped. While your here at AfterDowningStreet.org, you might want to do a little more reading and less writing. It may hurt a little, but what doesn't kill you only makes you smarter.

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